MA Games Enterprise

The MA Games Enterprise is an innovative course that will give you the opportunity to develop design, production and enterprise skills. It builds upon the existing successful teaching at undergraduate degree level within this subject area that has produced award-winning game developers, SMEs, artists and designers.

The Games Enterprise masters is aimed at those who wish to expand their existing skills and develop their practice within an environment that functions as a small development company, but who also wishes to tailor their learning to their own specialism. Using proven industry simulation techniques and collaborative practices, this course emulates team-based activity as used within the industry.

As part of the gaming master you will develop a game project that has robust documentation, detailed business strategy and, of course, a game to be proud of. See student and graduate work at our USW Games blog and follow us @USWgames

The MA Games Enterprise course will push students to develop their practice as games developers - analytical, artistic, conceptual, design, entrepreneurial, reflective and technical areas are explored. The use of a wide range of software tools for development and project management is encouraged, which will also facilitate the capturing of developmental evidence for research and development journals and reflection.

Selection of modules include:

Design and Aesthetics

Technology and Engine

Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship

Contexts and Market

Playtesting, Prototyping and Evaluation

Major Project

Teaching

The MA Games Enterprise course will be taught through a variety of seminars, discussions and presentations. With a focus on active and practice based learning, using live projects and collaboration.

All staff are active in research, consultancy, or employed within the games industry.

Assessment

You will study through a mixture of lectures, seminars, tutorials and project supervision. Guest speakers from within the industry will enhance your experience – these might be from within the areas of design, programming, development or enterprise.

Towards the end of the course you will produce a final game with accompanying documentation that exemplifies the design process, play testing and evaluation, promotion and enterprise and, in addition, may have opportunities to showcase your work towards publishing your final game.

Facilities

Our students benefit from several industry-standard games labs. These provide access to common games engines such as: Unreal Engine 4, Unity 3D, GameMaker, CRYENGINE and tools such as Adobe CS, Maya, 3DS Max, Mudbox and ZBrush along with other more specialist software packages.

Our games labs have been configured to support the latest technologies such as VR and have plenty of RAM, SSD boot drives, and secondary storage to handle your creative ambitions. Many of our computers come equipped with ultra-wide monitors too, excellent for improving your productivity and workflow.

We are investing in the future of gaming with our recent purchases of several Vive and Oculus Rift VR kits, some of which can be borrowed. We also have games controllers, graphics tablets, Cintiq screens, a 3D scanner, retro consoles, and our stand-up arcade cabinet containing 100s of classic games.

To support your creative use of gaming tech we have an extensive catalog of games related books and online ebooks within our library, where you can learn the secrets of being a successful games designer.

Lecturers

An Honours degree in a related field and/or substantial professional experience in a related field.

You will be expected to have some experience of design, development and production processes, such as asset production, level design, programming or enterprise/production activity. You will be interviewed and expected to bring along a portfolio of work.

Equivalent accredited international qualifications are acceptable. International students need to supply a CD or DVD of their work, or a link to their personal website, to evidence their ability. Commitment to study will be considered. Where possible, video-conferencing, Skype or other communication will be used to contact you.

English requirements

The course welcomes international applicants and requires an English level of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component or equivalent.

However, if you have previously studied through the medium of English IELTS might not be required, but please visit the country specific page on our international website for exact details.

International Students will be expected to have English to IELTS 6.0 or equivalent. For students not at this level, a range of intensive English courses recognised by UKBA are available at USW. These must be completed prior to entry on the Award.

Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee will remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course.

August 2019 – July 2020 Fees: USW will be offering a package of financial support for postgraduate study and this will be announced shortly.

August
2019
- July
2020
Fees

Full-time UK and EU:
£9000

Full-time International:
£13400

Part-time UK and EU:
£1000
per 20 credits

August
2020
- July
2021
Fees

Full-time UK and EU: TBC

Full-time International: TBC

Part-time UK and EU: TBC

Additional Costs

Students have access to a wide range of resources including textbooks, publications, and computers in the University’s library and via online resources. In most cases they are more than sufficient to complete a course of study. Where there are additional costs, either obligatory or optional, these are detailed below. Of course students may choose to purchase their own additional personal resources/tools over and above those listed to support their studies at their own expense. All stationery and printing costs are at a student’s own expense.

Our Careers and Employability Service

This includes: one-to-one appointments from faculty based Career Advisers, in person, over the phone or even on Skype and through email via the "Ask a Question" service. We also have extensive online resources for help with considering your career options and presenting yourself well to employers. Resources include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, interview simulator and application help. Our employer database has over 2,000 registered employers targeting USW students, you can receive weekly email alerts for jobs.

Our Careers service has dedicated teams: A central work experience team to help you find relevant placements; an employability development team which includes an employability programme called Grad Edge; and an Enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

Related Courses

Our Cardiff Campus is right in the city centre – the perfect home for our creative industries students. We’ve just finished a new phase of campus investment and development, so we can offer even more specialist facilities.